RE: FY 2006 Budget

Dear Representative Baldwin:

I write to express the Wisconsin Education Association Council’s deep concern over President Bush’s FY 2006 Budget.

Carl D. Perkins Program
First, the Bush administration’s FY 2006 budget proposes terminating the $1.3 billion Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education program, the federal government’s main career and technical education program. Elimination of the Perkins program would be a major blow to career and technical education here in Wisconsin. Three state agencies – the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS), the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and the Governor’s Work-Based Learning Board (GWBLB) – used the approximately $25 million in Perkins funding received by Wisconsin in 2004-05 to provide a number of valuable services.

The WTCS uses Perkins funding to provide a broad range of academic support services to students. For example, many technical college districts use Perkins funding to develop programs aimed at increasing the success of academically and economically disadvantaged students, single parents and disabled students. Under the Bush administration’s FY 2006 budget proposal, the WTCS would be forced to eliminate many of its student success and student achievement programs. Many of the students that rely on these programs will begin slipping through the cracks.

Perkins money is also important to fund career and technical education programs in Wisconsin’s high schools. Both DPI and the GWBLB use Perkins funding to develop, implement and improve technical programs in secondary schools. Perkins dollars are used to enhance high school students’ technical and academic skills and provide opportunities for transition to post-secondary education or into the workforce. It is extremely unlikely that Wisconsin’s secondary schools could continue these important programs if the president’s proposal were enacted.

As you well know, if our economy and workforce is to truly thrive, we need to ensure that Wisconsin residents have every opportunity to develop the occupation-based skills employers are seeking. The programs funded by the Perkins program are critical to helping our state meet this goal.

We strongly encourage you to reject the Bush administration’s budget proposal and support funding the Carl D. Perkins program at FY 2005 levels or higher.

Workforce Investment Act
In addition to the elimination of the Perkins program, the Bush Administration’s budget proposal makes drastic cuts in Title II of the Workforce Investment Act, the Adult Education and Family Literacy program (AEFL). The budget proposal reduces funding for AEFL by nearly 65%, from $569.7 million in 2004-05 to $200 million in 2005-06.

Wisconsin will be hit particularly hard because of the manner in which federal funds are distributed to the states. Under the Bush proposal, Wisconsin’s AEFL program – which is administered by the WTCS – will lose approximately $5.5 million in funding, a cut of about 70%. Here in Wisconsin, the AEFL program serves about 30,000 adult students per year.

AEFL resources, which are often partially matched by the state, are used to assist adults become literate, attain a high school equivalency degree and obtain the knowledge and skills necessary for employment. The program is one of Wisconsin’s only systems built to meet the many varying needs of adult education students and the public policy priorities that are served when their basic educational needs are met. The AEFL program leads to a number of benefits that come with increased educational attainment: a more highly trained and competitive workforce; improved intergenerational literacy; increased voting and other forms of civic participation; decreased recidivism; and more successful preventive health.

Again, we strongly encourage you to reject the Bush administration’s budget proposal and support funding the Adult Education and Family Literacy program at FY 2005 levels or higher.

Thank you for your consideration. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Sincerely,

Stan Johnson,
President

CC: Elizabeth Burmaster
Dan Clancy
Terry Craney
Members, WTCS State Board